


Punch me in the Mouth

by haylches



Series: Voltron One-Shots [7]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Arguing, But he is also a senstive boi, Established Relationship, Fixing relationship, Fluff and Angst, I lowkey just wrote this because I needed to vent lol, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Keith and Lance have a Talk, M/M, Misunderstandings, Realistic Relationships, and punches people for no reason
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:02:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28412097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haylches/pseuds/haylches
Summary: “This is what you wanted to show me? C’mon, Keith, it’s just fancy graphics, and I bet they didn’t even—"Lance’s sentence cut off suddenly as Keith harshly grabbed at his mouth, shoving his head backwards into the couch.----Keith and Lance get into an argument, but don't worry. Everything is resolved in the end :)Featuring a realistic argument and eventual resolution
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Series: Voltron One-Shots [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1891879
Kudos: 45





	Punch me in the Mouth

“ _This_ is what you wanted to show me? C’mon, Keith, it’s just fancy graphics, and I bet they didn’t even—"

Lance’s sentence cut off suddenly as Keith harshly grabbed at his mouth, shoving his head backwards into the couch.

“FUCK,” Lance shouted, reeling back. “Keith, what the--”

“Shut UP for a second, Lance,” Keith yelled, standing jerkily and walking away from the couch with measured steps. Lance watched him with wide eyes, cradling his throbbing mouth. Keith had shoved him so hard that his teeth had stabbed into the inside of his lips, leaving the metallic tang of blood in his mouth. Fuck, that _hurt._ Lance looked up to watch his boyfriend again, feeling as if he was seeing him for the first time. Keith’s fists were clenched tight at his sides, and Lance could tell even from a distance that he was breathing heavily.

Ok. The thing was, Lance knew Keith. Inside, outside, backwards, and forwards, and this was not like him. Keith was a hothead, yes, and he had a short temper, but _never_ had he laid a finger on Lance to hurt him. Lance’s heart was thumping loudly in his chest and he couldn’t help but shrink back as Keith turned to him with a sense of forced calm.

“I’ll be right back, I’m just going to go on a walk,” he ground out. Lance blinked at him, watching the way his boyfriend’s eyes were dangerous and dark.

“Ok,” he said softly, holding himself completely still as Keith stomped his way to the front door and let himself out, slamming the door behind him.

Lance remained frozen for another minute or two before he stood up and started to pace.

What in the _world_ had set Keith off? They hadn’t even been doing anything particularly interesting, and Lance hadn’t even said anything particularly offensive. Their entire relationship was built on mutual teasing and bickering, so he couldn’t understand why Keith had reacted so violently to it today. God, he couldn’t even remember what he _said._

Lance paced over to the hallway mirror, pulling his lips down and studying the bloody cuts that were left behind. It really wasn’t that bad of a wound, he’d definitely suffered worse, but he couldn’t get over the fact that _Keith_ was the one to hurt him. He hadn’t even done anything! Keith was acting like a child, and he did not plan to let this go until Keith had explained himself.

That didn’t mean he was stupid, though. He knew the way Keith worked, and going after him now would only make him angrier. Keith needed time to cool down and gather his thoughts, so all Lance could do in the meantime was wait and prepare to talk it over later, _hopefully_ getting an answer to why Keith was so angry over nothing.

Lance had been waiting on the couch for about an hour when Keith finally came home, opening the door with a quiet creak and shutting it gently behind him. He shuffled into the living room and dropped onto the couch with a sigh, not meeting Lance’s eye the entire time. Lance raised an eyebrow, looking at him expectantly. His lips throbbed.

“I’m sorry I punched your mouth,” Keith said to the floor, folding his arms tightly across his chest.

“It’s ok,” Lance replied, even though it really wasn’t. “That actually hurt, y’know.”

“Well I wasn’t exactly trying to be gentle,” Keith snapped, still refusing to meet Lance’s eye.

“What do you mean?” Lance asked incredulously. Whatever he’d been expecting, it wasn’t that. “You were _trying_ to hurt me? Why would you do that?”

“You made me mad,” Keith said, as if that answered the question. He was _still_ talking to the floor, and that bothered Lance more than anything else. This wasn’t even a proper apology; and Keith obviously didn’t even feel remorse for _hurting him._

“That doesn’t make it ok, Keith!” Lance said, turning to face his boyfriend head-on. “Just because you’re mad doesn’t mean you can hurt people! God, that’s so _childish!”_

“You think I don’t _know that?”_ Keith growled, finally turning to meet Lance’s eye. Lance flinched back at the smoldering anger he saw reflected in the normally gentle grey eyes. “I wouldn’t be here apologizing if I thought punching you was _ok._ I’m not an idiot!”

“Okay,” Lance said placatingly, holding out a hand. His irritation was like an iron hot poker in his chest. “Okay. I get it. I accept your apology.”

Keith glared at him before looking away silently.

“There are better things you can do, y’know,” Lance said after a moment of silence. Keith didn’t respond. “You don’t _have_ to react with violence. I mean, I usually just try to leave and calm myself down, because it’s always worse to hurt other people.”

Keith flinched at his side, and Lance blinked before mentally reviewing everything he’d just said.

“Ok hang on, I didn’t mean it like—”

“I know,” Keith cut him off, closing his eyes and visibly trying to calm himself. “I know. Can we just— Can we talk about this? Like adults? I know I reacted poorly, but you and I both know that I don’t go around hitting people for no reason. Did you ever even think about why I might have been upset?”

Lance opened his mouth because _of course he had,_ but on second thought… Had he really? He’d kind of been viewing the issue through victim-tinted glasses, which was somewhat deserved since Keith had _hurt him,_ but he’d also been so caught up in himself and how wronged he was that he hadn’t really stopped to consider Keith’s point of view.

“I did,” he said hesitantly, because his pride wouldn’t allow him to back down now. “I couldn’t really think of any reasons, though.”

Keith nodded, huffing out a sigh. “Ok. I’ll tell you my side of the story. I wanted to show you something that I thought was interesting and cool, and the moment you saw it you were already belittling it. Do you have any idea how that made me feel?”

“I—” Lance stopped, thinking it over. Maybe he had been a little harsh, but he was only _teasing._ Keith knew that, right?

“I wasn’t really mad about that, though, it was kind of just the tipping point. It’s sort of something you do a lot, and all the built-up anger overflowed all at once. I don’t want to hurt you, I love you and I care about you, but I reacted impulsively and I’m sorry.”

Lance took a moment to let it all sink in. Had he really been belittling Keith? Viewing it from that perspective made it seem so much worse. Really he was only meaning to tease, but he could kind of see what Keith meant. He did tend to tease Keith about things he liked, such as his stupid conspiracy theories and movie choices and food preferences. Still, Keith typically would give just as good as he got, and they were used to teasing and bickering. Why was this so different?

“I don’t understand why it made you so much angrier this time, though,” Lance said, folding his arms over his chest. “I always tease you. Why did it get to you so badly?”

Keith hesitated, apparently thinking the question over. “I guess… I think it’s because you didn’t even give it a chance. It’s different when you tease me about other things because I know you have an educated opinion and I have a differing opinion and that’s ok. This, though, was about more than just opinions. What really got to me was how I was trying to show you something new, something you’d never seen, and you immediately rejected it for no reason. Then you started insulting it and that was ridiculous because you hardly even _looked_ at it, so I took it too personally and it really fucking _hurt_ that you didn’t even care about something that _I_ care about. It felt like…” Keith paused, and Lance was horrified to see tears welling up in his eyes. “It felt like you were saying you didn’t care about _me.”_

Lance sucked in a harsh breath, eyes widening. “Keith, baby, that’s not what I meant. I swear, I didn’t mean—”

“I know,” Keith interrupted, holding up a hand. “I know. Which is why I should have just used my words instead of hurting you. You had no idea what was going on because I never said anything about it.”

Lance grasped Keith’s hand, running his fingers over the knuckles gently. “Still, I should have known—I never realized I was hurting you so badly. Do I really do it that often?”

“Yeah,” Keith said softly, curling into himself. “I kind of just stopped showing you things. And then Hunk or Pidge would show you their games or videos or whatever and you were always so _interested_ in what they would show you, and it hurt because I’d done the _exact same thing_ but all you did was laugh or ignore me.”

Lance felt like he was being stabbed repeatedly in the heart. “Fuck, Keith, I’m so sorry. I didn’t even realize I was doing that.” He raised a hand to cup Keith’s cheek, wiping at the tears that were steadily running over his pale skin. “Can I—Can I hug you?”

Keith nodded, wiping at his face and sniffling wetly, and Lance leaned forward and wrapped him in a hug. “I promise I won’t do that anymore, ok? I’ll try to give everything you show me a chance.”

“Ok,” Keith said shakily, his voice muffled into Lance’s shirt. “I promise I won’t punch you in the mouth again.”

Lance laughed at that, albeit a bit wetly, and tightened his grip around Keith’s shoulders. Sometimes he forgot how easy it was to hurt other people, even without knowing it. Neither he nor Keith were perfect, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t keep trying. Relationships took work and practice, and Lance fully intended to keep working on what they had. They were bound to fight again in the future, but they’d faced countless fights in the past and made it through every one. No matter the trials they’d have to face, Lance fully intended to never stop trying, because Keith?

Keith was worth every bit of it.


End file.
